Modes 1 Course 2023
October 8 - December 10, 2023
Work directly with Trey Gunn on a weekly basis in this 9-week group course.
This will be the sixth year of this highly successful course.
Note: The Modes 2 Course will run for 7 weeks in the winter of 2024.
Dates still to be finalized.
In Modes 2 we go into exotic modes, harmonic movement and modulation.
Prerequisite is the Modes 1 Course.
In the Modes 1 Course we break down one of the basic building blocks of music — the modes — into digestible parts, both sonically and theoretically, so you can use them with ease.
For all instrumentalists and singers.
“This course helped me to understand the notes I’m playing and reminded me to keep questioning why I’m playing those notes.”
This course will:
Help you to immediately find your ground in a piece of music
Give you flexibility when improvising
Give you greater color choices when developing your own compositions
Give you command of the core materials of music (well beyond the modes)
Give you a long-term pathway for hearing deeper into the relationships of the notes
This course is designed to work for all players:
Beginning players
We'll start with the basics
Intermediate players
Hone the fundamentals in your hearing for improved playing and writing
Advanced players
Find the gaps in your melodic hearing
Apply practices to close the gaps and take your playing further
Every week the materials include practices targeted to each level of player.
Learn to play confidently while capturing the unique quality of each mode in your improvisations and compositions. This ease only comes from the deep exploration based on how you hear, in your own particular way. This course breaks down that exploration into its core essence, step-by-step.
“The Modes course has been ‘ear-opening.’ I’m a professional orchestral musician and have a thorough background in music. Trey’s method for practicing to hear each scale degree in context is both simple and profound. This course truly starts from the very beginning yet puts it all in a larger context, with much to offer the more experienced musician.
I think for anyone who has studied music theory, but hasn’t felt the full benefit, this course will help you pull it all together. It has been helping me with new music I am interested in, but has also become a valuable tool with my regular work, analyzing and memorizing the classical music I perform.”
When most musicians play by thinking in modes, or scales, they tend towards using the tones equally and without their full meaning. This results in bland musical lines. Lines that come across like white light where, instead, there could be gorgeous color.
How a painter uses color is a useful analogy for working with the modes. Any musical idea can be tinted with one of the modes. The idea remains essentially the same; but the color of the music changes based on which mode you are using.
This course is designed to establish these “modal” differences in your ear so you can use them as you need to, much as a painter pulls from his or her palette of colors.
Learning about modes isn't about the information. The information is easy. Learning this material, the way I think we should, is about getting to know each note intimately within its tonal context -- the mode's center of gravity.
This course will use a progression of practices to develop our sense of each note and how that note fits into its mode. Known as 'functional hearing', in contrast to 'intervallic hearing', this work proves much more vital when improvising.
This is an oversimplification; but based on many years of practice, study, coaching and playing I have honed an approach to go directly into the sounds.
First, we learn the sounds. The information can come afterward, simply to help us organize.
“The Modal Courses have a whole new way of getting stunning new colors into your playing. Most recently having taken the Modes 2 course I can confirm these are not to be missed. The material is very well laid out for beginners and advanced players. Best part is they provide a way to get in touch with your own musical voice. Don’t think about it, Do It!”
This will be an email type of correspondence course with info/practices being presented each week. All of us will be discussing and digesting the material together via an online discussion group. There is no real-time participation, so any time-zone or personal schedule will fit with our work together.
NOTE > We will not be using standard music notation in this course. So, please feel included even if you don't consider yourself a "reader".
The course will adapt to the people participating and how things develop as we go along. But the general curriculum will be based on the following progression:
Week 1
General Concepts of Modes
Language And Method For The Course
Root, Fifth, Octave (+ listening/singing)
Week 2
Thirds (+ listening puzzles)
Week 3
Sevenths (+ extra singing)
Week 4
Sixths (+ playing)
Week 5
Review + Catch-up Week
Week 6
Seconds (+ composing lines)
Week 7
Fourths (+ audiation/memorization)
Week 8
Full Modes (+ pentatonics/hexatonics)
Week 9
Locrian/Pathway to Exotics (+wrap-up)
Cost is $350
The Modes 2 Course will be $299
Package discount for both courses
(Modes 1 and 2) is $525
From participants of previous Modes Courses:
“This course made me realize that although I have been enjoying and receiving music my whole life, I haven’t been actively listening. That would be a bitter pill to swallow, if the course didn’t also show me that listening is within my grasp.” - Marc Pelath
“My listening experience has been deeply transformed after working with Trey. His advice and guidance is not only straightforward and practical but paradoxically transcends into the mysterious nature of music.”
– Daniel Reyes Llinás (composer/guitarist)“At the end of this course I felt more like being at the beginning of something.” - Jaakko Peltonen (touch guitar)
“I have been studying modes for a long time but found Trey's presentation as the one approach where the light bulb goes on above my head.”
- Bob Kessler (harmonica)“Trey is a consummate coach. The material was presented in an alternate yet very practical order that integrates one's voice, heart, and head. I loved it!” - David Synder, Phd.
“Trey’s unique Modes course led me to some new insights and understanding of my perception of Music, which is a welcome occurrence after 50 years of working with Music. And the interaction with others was likewise very enriching. Highly recommended.” – Tony Geballe
“Trey's modes course presents an excellent opportunity to immerse in the material in an organic way. There is a lot to digest here with exercises in intervalic hearing, solfege and what makes the various modal flavors what they are. Plus an excellent community of musicians to share with.”
– David Oskardmay“Modes were esoteric and unfathomable to me, now they are challenging, fun and illuminating. The tools in this class have led to new levels of understanding and enjoyment and connected my ear and my voice in ways I never dreamed possible.” – Julia Hensley